yakalskovich | Obligatory HP7 spoilers post

xanath was right. She was completely right in her post from yesterday, but never more but in the remark about The Tower. What happens after the tower of certainty has fallen? The world is suddenly filled with innumerable new possibilities. Tower is a painful and earth-shattering card, Tower is what happens over and over again in HP7, to the point where they actually enter it as a place because the Lovegoods live there. Brilliant stroke - in there, they learn what it's all about, and all their plans are overturned, which turns them in the direction they ultimately need to go.

That needs to be another icon - 'Tower Happens'. Anyway, that was what my cryptic post was about. Tower rules this book: Tower took over in the chapter of HP6 called "The Lightning-Struck Tower" which references the tarot card directly. Turnabout comes from unexpected directions. It begins with Kreacher, and doesn't even end with Narcissa. Lovely that the tiny element that proves the downfall of Voldemort is the fact that death-eaters love their children, too. He is so not human any more, he can't even understand love.

Also, it is about the last painful stage of growing up, which is realising that you're on your own from now on. You learn to see your great monuments and heroes brought down to your own level - and don't hate them any more for being human just as you are. Harry can accept the weaknesses of his father, Dumbledore, Sirius. He actually confronts Remus with his weakness without any lasting ill effect between them. Only the tower crumbling is what enables Harry to become strong independently, and the same is true, off-screen, for Neville. The Tower has always been my favourite tarot card, and what I've been doing with

destroy_restart in Milliways reflects that selfsame effect that governs the entire plot of HP7.

Of course, to have the four corners of the Tower re-erected, Remus had to die as well so he could come back through the Resurrection Stone on Harry's way to Voldemort, with Lily taking the fourth corner instead of Peter Pettigrew, who nevertheless is dead as well at the time - but we needed four corners, not six, so we get neither Wormtail nor Snape at that point. After you destroy, you restart. That's why the epilogue, too - it's not the saccharine fulfilment of fannish dreams, it's about the world rebuilt to its former stage, and the wheel starting for another turn. I must say that the idea of a little eleven-year-old wizard about to start Hogwarts and named Albus Severus Potter seriously moved me.-

On a ore personal note, I was quite relieved that Gilbert Wimple turned out to have been a 1.5 line joke in book 4 and nothing more, after all - he got no comeback of any kind, at all. He was part of the smokescreen, not the content.

gil_whimple remains uncontested by canon;

essayel and I can carry on as planned without any added, unnecessary drama.-

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I finnished the book at 3 minutes past 1.
Now I am going to make some pasta salad.
I am still a bit grumpy about Tonks and Lupin but loved the rest.

It makes sense for Remus to die because of the four corners of the Tower returned in the world of the dead. Because of these four, Harry is truly not afraid of dying - he'd go with them after all.

But Tonks? Yep. That was a bit of an overkill. Literally.

I've never been so happy over a book.

Jo did it. She pulled it off; she wrote a book I couldn't put down, and did it even while racking up a body count that made me cry and groan. I mean, yes, Dobby's death was pitiful, Fred made me cry, and Lupin and Tonks made me mutter, "Oh, no, no, not them," but Hedwing? What did the poor owl do to anyone? All she wanted was a chance to get out of her damn cage. Poor thing.

And I was never so glad to be wrong as I was about Snape. I spent months hating him, and then thinking, "Could everyone else be right? Did I just seriously misread him?" Well, yes, I did, and I'm glad I did, because it made the revelation of his true motives and character that much sweeter. Poor Severus, alone to the very end. I thought Harry's gesture was a kind one, and very in keeping with his character.

I'm going to re-read it in a week. That should give things time to settle in.

And personally, I love your analysis. :) Thanks for giving me a nod.

--Kris

They drop dead left and right - Mad-Eye Moody, poor old Bathilda Bagshot, and in the end Lavender Brown and Colin Creevy as well, such harmless and slightly silly charries.

I think that was one of JKR's great achievement - every death makes you wince. Even Crabbe getting burned up by his own Fiendfyre.

I spent the time inbetween this book and the last preparing myself to say goodbye to certain characters that I expected to die in this book. So Severus's death, while sad, did not effect me the same way as some of the others.

Moody upset me because he was a favorite of mine and because, as stated, he seemed the eternal survivor. Fred was shocking and sad, because he'd been so full of life...and Tonks and Remus was whole disheartening to me. Their deaths really knocked me back for a moment.

But Rawling did her job. She kept me tuned in and turning pages...for a whole six hours. ;)

It took me even than that because I was dragged all over the place and had to sleep in-between.

And while I see a plottish reason why Remus had to die, Tonks was unnecessary - leaving poor Teddy a full orphan! The epilogue doesn't even bother to say who raised him - one suspects it would be Andromeda.

That's what I figured after a few moments thought.

IN any case, there was no plottish reason to kill off Tonks, and we don't even see her die doing something great - she just lies there, dead, on a table near Fred, and then Harry goes on to let Voldemort kill him.

Seemed so unfair to me. The little family...just married, newborn son and bam...gone and little Teddy's suddenly an orphan.

Yep, exactly.

And while Remus was definitely needed dead, Tonks could have stayed alive - her death served no plot point!

Obligatory HP7 spoilers post

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